Real Racing 3 - Le Mans: Pursuit of Victory Gameplay Trailer: Video

In anticipation of this year’s running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, EA Games and Firemonkeys Studios are releasing a new update for the free-to-play racing gameReal Racing 3. Players are now offered the opportunity to park three of the latest prototype racers in their virtual garage, and they won’t even need to dish out their hard-earned (or bought) in-game currency to do so.

It’s called the Pursuit of Victory quest, and this is how it works: from now until the running of the actual 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 14th, players can take up the challenge by racing one of the three available LM P1 vehicles (the Nissan GT-R LM, the Porsche 919 Hybrid, and the Audi R18 e-tron quattro) in a special event in the game. Complete the challenge, and you get to keep the car, no micro-transaction necessary. Complete the challenge again in the remaining two racers, and you get to keep them too.

There will also be a special time trails competition with additional prizes up for grabs.

Adding to the Le Mans hype is a recreation of the 8.47-mile Circuit de la Sarthe, which has been rendered with as much detail as possible.

You can download Real Racing 3 onto a variety of mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, Nvidia Shield, and Blackberry 10.

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Why it matters

As the third installment in a long line of well-received racing games, RR3 has seen a bit of criticism for its freemium business model. While many praise the game’s graphics, gameplay, sounds, controls, and real-world likeness, few are satisfied with the game’s perceived greediness when it comes to the new in-app purchase system. Hopefully, this limited-time challenge will help players forget that for a while and just concentrate on getting those three prototypes locked down.

Also, the appearance of the Nissan GT-R LM is much appreciated, especially when you consider how the real car has failed to turn a wheel in actual competition due to numerous setbacks and difficulties. This unusual challenger is scheduled to appear at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, and hopefully, we’ll see it race in the real world as well as the virtual one.

As the brainchild of Ben Bowlby, also known for the All American Racers DeltaWing and ZEOD RC, the GT-R LM is an oddity, to say the least. The most striking difference you’ll find is in the drivetrain layout, which snubs convention with a front-mounted engine driving the front wheels.

This purportedly allows the car to take advantage of greater aerodynamic efficiency, with higher downforce and lower drag, as well as reduces parasitic driveline loss. Whether or not the new formula will actually work remains to be seen, but should Bowlby’s latest creation manage to stay near the front, you can bet it’ll turn the world of endurance racing on its head.

Porsche has revealed its newest 919 Hybrid racecar. Check out all of its details at TopSpeed.com.

As the second generation, this year’s 919 Hybrid brings with it a variety of updates, although many have yet to be revealed to the public. In the front, you’ll find numerous, yet subtle, aerodynamic changes, including a single, wide air intake spanning the distance between the redesigned lights. The lights have been upgraded with four LEDs per side, which should help greatly during the early-morning hours of the race. Powering the racer is a turbo 2.0-liter V-4 engine, coupled with an electric motor juiced by two energy-reclamation systems and a lithium-ion battery.

Audi has been doing quite well for itself in the World Endurance Championship, winning a slew of events last year, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Not content to rest on its laurels, Audi is once again reinvigorating its R18 for 2015, starting with a more efficient design of its carbon-fiber exterior. The powertrain is also more efficient, with the 550-horsepower, 4.0-liter V-6 diesel engine using 2.5 percent less fuel than last year’s car. Boosting this is a pair of electric motors powering the front axle, adding another 268 horsepower.